


Comfort (in the blanket of your presence)

by Gemini_Baby



Series: Flufftober 2020 [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Damian Wayne is a good brother, Emotional Hurt/ Comfort, Fluff, Flufftober, Flufftober 2020, Gen, Insecurity, Self-Hatred, hurt/ comfort, self-deprecation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26771668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemini_Baby/pseuds/Gemini_Baby
Summary: Damian, having a headache, decided to stay and rest in the cave, and not attend the party going upstairs. He soon finds some company.OR: Damian and Jason finding comfort in each other's presence.
Relationships: Goliath & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Titus | Damian Wayne's Dog & Damian Wayne, Titus | Damian Wayne's Dog & Jason Todd
Series: Flufftober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022917
Comments: 11
Kudos: 236
Collections: Flufftober2020





	Comfort (in the blanket of your presence)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Flufftober 2020's prompt, "Comfort"
> 
> I hope you enjoy <3
> 
> Many thanks to Lulaypp (Fori) for being amazing and polishing this fic 💞  
> Also, go check out her fics too ♥ 
> 
> Warning for the chapter: Mentions of headache and panic attack, nothing in detail or graphic though.  
> (still, always take care of yourselves <3 )

With his head on Goliath’s fur, and Titus curled around his feet, Damian lied down on the floor, with eyes closed. The headache hurts, and it is causing his mood to swing. He wants the headache to go away. He has pulled through worse, in the past. What is a mere headache?

As if to emphasize its impact, it starts severing, and Damian barely resists the urge to grimace.

Alfred the Cat approaches him, all regal in his posture and lies on his side. Damian takes a deep breath, turns a bit to his side and pets Alfred’s head, after that he curls again, and turns to his side to sleep.

Soon enough, he has company.

Jason.

Damian nods in a greeting and then again closes his eyes, trying to will the headache to go away.

It doesn’t.

Oh well. He will live.

He just wants some rest. And maybe someone to hold him.

Basically, he wants what he can’t get. At least not right now. Because his family is upstairs. Celebrating something. Independence Day. Maybe. Damian doesn’t care. Noises and people make him anxious and stressed. 

And oh, they have also thrown a party for almost the whole city. Or the whole city’s elites.

Damian is not upstairs because of the headache. He is not sure why Jason is no longer upstairs though.

Where is he?

He opens his eyes and sees his second eldest brother sitting on the far end of the place where Damian’s pets are resting in a circle. Jason is sitting outside of it. Hugging his knees to his chest, and maybe choking back sobs.

“Todd?” Damian calls for Jason.

Jason doesn’t look at him, rocking himself slightly and trying to ground himself. Damian nudges Titus and Alfred lightly. They are trained. They know what Damian is saying. Titus goes to Jason and rubs his head against Todd’ side. That makes Todd lift his head from his knees. He sees Titus and pets him. Titus goes and lays half of his upper body on Jason’s lap. Jason keeps scratching his head. His attention now diverted a bit towards Titus, from what was previously hurting him.

Damian can see the tear tracks on Todd’s face. He doesn’t like it. His brother should not be crying, he should not be hurt.  _ But he is hurt _ . Damian has no idea how to help him.

Damian lifts his head up from Goliath’s lap, leaving the comfort of his first friend’s fur, and crawls where his second eldest brother sits; scratching the dog’s head and hiccuping little sobs. He leans forward and wipes the tears from his brother’s eyes.

Jason looks at him. His mouth opened slightly and his eyes widened. But he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t protest. Damian wipes the tears from his eyes, little fingers swiping and caressing the cheek.

Few minutes pass by.

Jason buries his face into the dog’s fur.

After some minutes, he lifts his head and looks at Damian. Taking deep breaths, and making himself say something. Damian looks at him with attention. “Titus is trained, right?”

Damian blinks. Once. then nods his head.

“Can you….I mean...never mind, this is stupid.” He looks away to the side.

“Nothing is stupid,” Damian says. When he sees Todd doesn’t believe him, he asks, “What do you want me to ask Titus to do?”

After a couple of minutes, Todd says, “In my room, there...there would be a shirt on the bed. It is Bruce’s. Mine. I mean mine but actually, it’s Bruce’s. I sneaked it from his cupboard. Can you ask Titus to bring it?”

_ Oh. _

_ Comfort shirt. _

Father’s shirt which Todd sometimes keeps with him when he has more nightmares than usual.

Damian nods. “I will.” He then leans forward and asks Titus to go do the task.

Once Titus goes, it appears Todd doesn’t have anything to distract him, and he feels vulnerable.

So Damian looks behind, communicates with Goliath with a tilt of his head. Being the best friend bat dragon he is, he understands Damian’s wordless requests and answers to the sentences Damian never voices. Goliath hovers a bit forward, coming behind Damian, and then sits on the floor. His one wing blankets Damian, and he uses his other wing to pull Jason closer, which gets a surprised noise from Todd. An amused smile flashes in Damian’s eyes. Goliath wraps and blankets Todd with his other wing.

Todd is surprised, at first. But the warmth and the weight of the wing supposedly helps.

“I was going to take that shirt. But… the fireworks got louder and I had a panic attack. Sorry for bothering.”

“You are not bothering anyone.”

“I am.”

“You aren’t”

“I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Here?”

“At the manor, I mean. Should have declined.”

  
  
  


Titus brings the shirt to the cave and gives it to them, which Jason takes and hugs to his chest.

“You are wrong. They are the ones that shouldn’t be doing the fireworks.”

“Just because I have been dead doesn’t mean they should stop living.”

Jason turns to his side, hugging the shirt close, and trying to stop the tremors going in his body.

Damian lies down, where he is covered by the wing too, and faces his elder brother.

  
  
  


“We are glad that you live.”

Jason opens his eyes, looks at Damian. Eyes soft, he closes his eyes, giving a self-deprecating smile. He doesn’t believe it. He is humouring Damian.

“I am glad that you are my brother,” he tries again.

“You would be the first.”

“...Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know”

“We all like you being our brother”

“...Can we drop the topic?” Jason sounds tired. Not angry. Just sad and tired. Something may have happened upstairs. 

“Okay.”

They lay like that for a while, on their sides, facing each other, and eyes closed. One fighting a headache and other trying to fight heartache.

Little puffs of breath by Goliath filling the silence, while Jason tries to control his panic. Before he breaks the silence.

“Damian”

“Yes?”

“Can you distract me?”

“Sure. Do you have any preference?”

“Mmm...Maybe not baby animals and animal parents facts. Everything else is fine.”

“Alright.”

Damian nudges Titus again, who this time brings him his tablet. His tablet is inside a protective covering so it won’t be damaged.

  
  


He turns on the tablet. “I am drawing costumes and people. You have any prompts?”

Todd looks at him, confused. “What kind?”

“Silly?”

“Oh. I see. Spoiler in Batman costume?”

“Alright. But that’s not silly,” he says as he starts making a spoiler batman amalgam, one which Stephanie would _love_ , and as Richard would say, _would totally rock it._ “It’s a good prompt, a respectable one.” 

Once finished, he shows it to Jason, who comments, “This looks cool, Damian.”

“I already said that it would be cool.” Damian added under his breath, “Because Stephanie is cool.”

Jason hears him anyway. “Oh, I am so telling that to Steph!”

“You are not!”

“I am!”

Seeing that it is distracting Todd, Damian decides that he will take being the victim of “I am cool because Dami said so’ for a week, as a win.

“Silly this time?”

“Yes”

“Mmmm….your costume but make it fluffy”

“ _ What” _

Todd just shrugs. “You asked for silly” 

Damian takes a deep breath. “A challenge is a challenge.” After making the doodle, he is surprised that he actually likes it. 

“That doodle looks good.”

“Thank you. Another prompt?”

“This might not be silly.”

“Okay?”

Todd rubs his neck, “Uh, I think I once heard Big Bird say that he has a winter Nightwing costume. Bruce designed it. It keeps cold away but Dick doesn’t like it.”

“Why?”

“Says it looks ugly.” Todd adds, “A Nightwing costume design which looks cool and keeps cold away?”

“Let’s see what I can do. In a doodle.”

“ _ You _ can do a lot in a doodle”

Damian just looks at Todd. Unbelievingly.

“Look, you made an eggplant coloured batman look cool and intimidating at the same time.”

Damian doesn’t reply. He is embarrassed. He often gets embarrassed at the praise.

He thinks something and then makes two doodles. Jason looks attentively at the tablet.

“Are we going to play with different colours in different ones?”

_ “Yes.” _

“Cool!”

Once Damian finishes the first one, Jason doesn’t look happy. “You know I said the suit Bruce made looks ugly.”

“Yes.”

“This...well, Bruce’s design looks less ugly.”

Damian snickers. And then quiets himself.

“I am making another design.”

“How many?”

“Three I think. One as a stealthy suit, with all white. Other with blue. And maybe one with red and orange flame colours. The last one is purely self-indulgent.”

“I am intrigued to see where this goes.”

_ After stealth suit doodle _

“It looks good. But it doesn’t look Nightwing.”

“I know. I will email this to him anyway.”

“He forgot your art gallery?”

“No. And not to annoy him.”

“Then?”

“We send each other different costume designs for each other’s uniforms.”

“ _ Huh.” _

“Huh, as in good or bad?”

“Huh as in it sounds cool! And not cool in a Gotham’s winter way.”

Damian just smiles.

The second suit has the baby blue colour accents on the suit and boots, and a subtle v on the chest on the jacket.

“This one looks pretty!”

“Thank you.”

He quickly emails them to Richard.

And then he starts working on the last piece.

It becomes more than just a doodle.

It soon becomes full-fledged digital painting with rendering and all.

The red and orange colours’ shade make it look like a flame.

He replaces the bird symbol with a phoenix.

It looks like a phoenix made of flame, rising and spreading its wings. The places where red and orange is, where the suit would have more padding and warmth.

It may look more like Flamebird than Nightwing.

If he wants to have it made and wear it or not is going to be Richard’s decision.

If not, Damian knows it would surely go and be used as Richard’s laptop wallpaper though.

  
  


He hears a whistle from his side, reminding him where he is. He had gotten lost in his thoughts and design. “ _ Dickie is going to love it!” _

He won’t. Damian knows. Richard likes blue too much.

“That looks awesome,” Todd says and then looks at Damian. “But you don’t look happy with it.”

“I don’t know? I feel good but not entirely satisfied.”

“That’s okay too.”

  
  


“You have made like five drawings already. Take some rest.”

Damian puts the tablet way for a while. HIs wrist does need some rest after all.

  
  
  


“Listen.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for distracting me”

“I hope it helped.”

“It did.”

“I am glad.”

  
  
  
  
  


“Damian?”

“Yes?”

“Why were you in the cave and not upstairs?”

“I have a headache.”

“You had a headache and you worked on your tablet for hours?”

“....yes”

“I am sorry.”

“Why are you sorry, Todd?”

“Headaches get worse when you spend time on screens. And you were using the tablet, for a long time, because of me.”

“It’s fine.”

“Is your headache?”

“...no.”

“Dick is going to kill me.”

“He is not on Earth currently.”

“ _ Oh God, Dick is going to race back to Earth from a faraway planet  _ **_and_ ** _ kill me!” _

“Stop being dramatic!”

“I am not being dramatic.”

“ _ I am fine. _ ”

Their staring match stretches long before Todd breaks the silence.

“Go to sleep. It will help with the headache”

“Can’t.”

“Storytime?”

“Gore?”

Todd takes a deep breath. “Do you want Bruce to kill me instead?”

“No one is going to kill you.”

“Can I narrate a comedy of errors instead?”

“Fine. Deal. Wouldn’t like you to be killed before tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

“Goliath is taking us to view the grounds outside Gotham, from the sky.”

“I am coming too?”

“Yes. Unless you don’t want to.”

“I want to.”

  
  
  


Jason narrates  _ The Gift of the Magi _ and Damian falls asleep to it, feeling a bit comfortable after a long time suffering from the headache.

He doesn’t know that Jason falls asleep soon after he does, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it 💖
> 
> Kudos, comments, bookmarks, user subscriptions are all welcome and appreciated
> 
> If you want to say hi on tumblr or follow me there, I am geminibabyhere


End file.
